AVTR Adventures
by LegendDreamer
Summary: In this series, join Ri Dracis, biotechnician, and Jason DeMarcco, mechanic, as they enter Pandora as avatar pilots. Set several years before the movie, the story will explore working in the most exotic colony in existence: Hell's Gate.
1. 01: Ri Dracis

**INITIATING FIRST TRANSMISSION**

01: Ri Dracis

The rugged, tan landscape of the New Mexican desert shot by in a blurry streak as the sleek, silver maglev train raced down its track. The train, part of the Resources Development Administration's Transcon fleet, sped along at over 600 kilometers per hour, suspended above the rails with deceptive ease. Ri Dracis sat back in the well-cushioned seat, watching the scenery flash past in his customary thoughtful silence. It was a habit of his to let his eyes wander the landscape, letting his thoughts roam free. It was a welcome change to see nature, even a hot, barren desert. In this magnificent year 2144, the only thing one tended to see were the enormous, toxic-aired, garishly lit, overpopulated megacities.

Ri's expression darkened. He pushed those thoughts back, forcing his mind to move on. Nobody liked to dwell too long on the tragic condition the once magnificent planet Earth was in. Anyways, a change in scenery wasn't the only unusual thing going on today. Today was anything but usual. Usual did not involve preparing to leave the planet. Usual did not involve traveling twenty-five trillion miles to the most exotic place known to man. _Then again_, he mused, _there's no harm in change every once in a while._

The twenty-five year old scientist's mouth twitched up in its classic half-grin. Change was putting it rather lightly. His thoughts were interrupted as the intercom gave a _ping._

_"Ladies and gentlemen,we are now approaching Spaceport America," _came the cool, female voice over the speakers. _"Please prepare to disembark. Ladies and gentlemen,we are now approaching-"_

Ri sat up and reached for his duffel bag as the message was repeated. Throughout the train, other passengers were doing likewise, disturbing the usual quiet of the cabin as they prepared themselves. He ran his free hand through his windblown blond hair and stretched as far as the seat would allow, ridding himself of the sleepy stiffness that came with train travel. At the same time, he felt the train slowly start to decelerate. Bit by bit, the light hum of the magnetic thrusters changed in pitch as they began to bring down the maglev's speed. Outside the window, the blurred plain gradually became more defined. And before them, spread out across the New Mexican desert, lay their destination.

Low, smooth and streamlined, Spaceport America's buildings resembled nothing so much as a fleet of massive spacecraft themselves. Dominating the port lay the great Central Hall, nearly a mile wide. The central part of the semicircular hall bulged upwards, the roof gently sloping down towards the "wings" of the building. Before it, like smaller craft before the mothership, lay three similarly shaped but smaller buildings, the terminals. The sun's light reflected lightly off the curving roofs, highlighting the metallic tan surfaces with silver. To the other side lay a rectangular building, wide and tall. This was the habitation area, a hotel for both passengers and crews.

A grin slowly spread across Ri's face as he beheld the famous spaceport. _Ah, yes._ This was the life. Pulse quickening, eyes shining, breath catching. A grand trip before you, a mission, an undiscovered world. This was the feeling of adventure. Certainly, this was a serious matter of enormous importance. There was not, however, a law against enjoying it.

_And why wouldn't I be excited,_ he thought. _I'm about to leave for an Eden beyond my wildest dreams. I'm going to walk around as a ten foot tall cat-being, going to do what I do best. I might even help save this sorry dump of a planet. And as an added bonus, I'm getting paid to do it._

The window view was suddenly plunged into darkness as the train entered a tunnel, taking them towards the underground platforms. The electronic hum of the train became lower and lower as it went into the final stages of braking. Throughout the cabin, the passengers stirred in their seats, preparing to get up. Ri's hand tightened itself around the bag's straps in anticipation. _Here we come_.

Just as suddenly as it had entered the dark, the maglev emerged into the whitish light of the underground platforms. Ri looked out of the window, observing the low, tiled station hall. In long, parallel lines, the access platforms extended down the length of the hall. In between them waited more silver maglevs, their red TRANSCON AMERICA logos bright on their sides. The entire place was swarming with people, boarding, exiting and generally milling about. With a final, electronic thrum and a little jolt, the train came to a final standstill. After a momentary pause, Ri heard the pneumatic hiss of the opening doors. They had arrived.

The cabin was filled with motion as the commuters all stood up from their seats and made for the aisle. Ri followed suit, unfolding his thin, six-foot frame from the seat. Stretching the last of the stiffness out, he slung his bag over his shoulder and joined the crowd in the aisle.

"This way, please." Standing next to the twin exits were two of Transcon's attendants, uniformed in simple red skirts and blouses. With classic, professional cheeriness, the pair motioned the steady flow of passengers outside. Giving a polite nod, Ri passed them and stepped out of the train and onto the tiled platform -

- and was immediately immersed in the activity of the station. Assorted voices shouted, murmured and did everything in between, creating a monotonous thrum occasionally punctuated by the loudspeakers. Holograms flashed above the trains, displaying information on departures, arrivals, destinations and other information in glowing blue. A constant flow of people seemed to come from every direction, to and from the trains. Ri saw businessmen in impeccable suits, groups of soldiers in distinctive camouflage uniforms, people of every conceivable shape and size.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Quite a few of them had the sickly, gray look of people who had been confined to tiny living quarters and fed on synthetic proteins. A look that was all to common these days. A population of around 20 billion, a massive gap between the fortunate few and the impoverished many, widespread conflicts and a climate that was well and truly devastated didn't exactly make ideal living conditions. Humanity had truly become a victim of its own success. _Oh yes, a few centuries of development _certainly _got us a long way. _Once again, he forced himself to push those thoughts away. Right now, he had to focus on getting to his own destination. Standing still in this crowd _probably_ wasn't the best thing to do right now. He looked around, craning his neck and trying to find something that could help him find his way.

"Ah, there we are," he murmured, locating the arched tunnel entrances at opposite ends of the hall. He set off towards the closer one, weaving his way through the crowd. _Hey, at least this isn't New York or a place like that._ His mouth twisted in a wry smile at the thought of the stations and streets of the East Coast metropolises. The human flow here seemed positively gentle in comparison to those unbelievably crowded places, and the commuters here looked far healthier and wealthier. Thankfully, his stays at the cities tended to be limited to the better, more comfortable areas. One of the advantages of working as a high-level researcher. Besides, quite a large part of him would always enjoy this hustle and bustle, the variety and excitement that came with travel.

Ri nimbly sidestepped a trio of expensively dressed ladies headed in the opposite direction and stepped onto the power ramp at the tunnel entrance. The angled conveyor belt steadily transported the commuters up the tunnel, towards the main hall above them. Screens hung at regular intervals up the wall, advertising everything from Virgin Galactic flights to the Mars colonies to the latest line of luminescent designer clothing. Ri couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at the latter. _That is absolutely nothing compared to what I'm going to be wearing. _

As the space outside the end of the tunnel appeared, a chink of warm, bright light hit him in the face. As he continued upwards, the sunbeam spread down his body, immersing him in its warmth. _Ah, yes_. Ri closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of nature's light, a light that was all too rare for people these days.

"_Mind your step," _came a mechanical voice, shaking him out of his reverie.

"Yes, ma'am," Ri dryly murmured, bringing himself back on track. He hopped over the end of the walkway a moment before it would have tripped him and stepped into the great Central Hall. He was rather impressed.

The massive hall stretched high in all directions, above and around him. The polished floor, the same light tan of the outside plain, gleamed softly in the desert sun and made subtle mirror images of everything on top of it. The sunlight itself came from giant skylights, set into the flowing ceiling that arched high above his head. Hanging from that ceiling were giant screens, displaying flight information, advertisements and the news. Behind him, a long row of glass doors opened to the outside world, the parking areas, hotels etc. At regular intervals along the floor, the entrances to the maglev station emerged from below. Both of these added a steady stream of people to the multitudes inside. The vast hall echoed with the resonation of voices and footsteps.

Ri headed to the far side of the hall. There, the chamber narrowed down to the width of a large street, going on towards security, lounges and the terminals. Check-in booths lined either side of the narrow, processing a steady flow of passengers. Ri passed booths for Armstrong Lunar, Virgin Galactic and other spacelines, heading for the end of the line. There, a screen above several booths read **Special Flights**, followed by the RDA logo and **ISV Hermes**_. _Luckily for him, most of the booths were vacant. Well, lucky? He _had_ made a point of arriving well ahead of schedule.

Reaching one of the check-in computers, Ri swung down his bag and laid it carefully at his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his yellow RDA personnel ID tag. He studied it for a moment, looking at the symbol of the despised supercompany. _Who'd have thought six years ago that I'd be working for _these_ guys?_ he thought wryly to himself. However, he was by no means a mere RDA pawn. He had his own agenda.

With a speed born of routine, he slipped the tag into its designated slot and placed his right hand onto the biometric scanner. The computer gave a beep as it checked his fingerprints and compared it to the information inside the tag's a moment, the data had been processed. **A-DSR, Dr. Ri Dracis, Avatar Pilot, **the screen read. The confirmation was followed by secondary information. **Present at Terminal 3, 11:30. Boarding time: 15:00. **Ri checked the little clock at the corner of the screen: **10:03.** _Excellent, time to spare._ He removed his tag, grabbed his bag, and strode off towards the inner reaches of the Spaceport.

He sucked in a deep breath of air as he walked along, rather enjoying himself. All sorts of establishments lined the walls here, giving the impression of a big-city mall. He passed fast-food restaurants, southwestern souvenir shops, a little museum on space travel; in short, anything an interplanetary traveler might want or need. As he walked along, he began to feel the familiar, electric tingling of adventure stirring inside him. He welcomed it, appreciating the sensation of energy, of excitement.

Feeling certain that he had enough time and rather encouraged by his dry throat, he decided to stop for refreshment. Spotting the famous green lady of Starbucks to his left, he turned and entered the coffee-scented room. At that moment, a television screen on one of the walls caught his attention. The TV, set on a news channel, displayed what looked like a mass of angry people, painted bright blue. _Oh, boy._ _Not good._

Unfortunately for him, the news was so distracting he momentarily forgot that he was still walking. And with a jarring _thump_, he walked straight into a very, very large man.

**Author's note: **_Well, what do you think? This fanfic, as the summary said, will be exploring the life of an avatar pilot in Hell's Gate, so rest assured: there's plenty left to come._

_Please review! Whether it's criticism, praise, or suggestions for future chapters, I'm very interested in hearin what you thought of my work!_

_Naturally, I do not claim to own anything created by James Cameron and his ingenious crew.  
_


	2. 02: Jason DeMarcco

02: Jason DeMarcco

The room was at rest. Dark, except the occasional colored pinprick from the electronics. Silent, save for the deep, rhythmic breathing of its sleeping occupant and for the muffled, ever-present thrum of the city outside. The busyness of daytime was nowhere to be found. Tranquility, peace.

The peace was rather rudely interrupted. With a series of mechanical _beep_s, the bedside alarm clock unceremoniously jarred the unfortunate Jason DeMarcco back into reality.

"_Mhh?"_ Jason grunted, his mind still fogged by the haze of sleep. The twenty-six year old mechanic, who until a second ago had been deep in dreamland, groggily turned beneath his sheets and blindly reached for the snooze button. At the same time, the part of him that was awake attempted to figure out why the _heck_ he was being awakened so early. His finger caught on the button, silencing the device. Having eliminated the irritation, he rolled back his mattress, fully intending to complete his forty winks. Just then, throughout the jumble of half-finished thoughts, he vaguely remembered something, something to do with today. _Pandora? Today...Pandora!_

Jason sat up with a jolt, suddenly completely awake. That single thought was thundered through him, setting every fiber of his body tingling. _Pandora._ _Today. _The_ day._

Realizing that he was still just sitting there, he shot into sudden action, scrambling from beneath the sheets. His feet made a deep, resounding _thud_ as they hit the floor. Jason winced, freezing in mid-step. Small, quiet places and a six-foot-seven, 225-pound bulk didn't always mix that well. After making sure he wasn't hearing any muffled complaints, he continued, trying to be both as quick and as quiet as he possibly could.

"Lights on," he commanded, enunciating clearly. The apartment's voice-controlled LED lighting flicked on, illuminating the room. Moving on to the small bathroom, Jason couldn't help feeling out of place. His apartment, now cleared of just about everything he wasn't taking along, seemed strange, bare. Weights, automobile posters, machine parts: practically the entire mechanical mishmash had been given to family and friends for eighteen years of safekeeping.

A minute or two of mist-vapor showering later, Jason emerged from the bathroom, pulling a dark t-shirt over his muscled chest. Just like any morning, he headed for the den's built-in fridge, absently rubbing a hand through his dark, short curls. He chuckled as he pulled the quick-meal packet from the fridge. Algae proteins, processed, flavored and shaped into bars.

"Call this breakfast? It's my second to last day here, and this is what I get?" he asked nobody in particular, adopting the cheerful, mocking tone of a classic movie inmate. He sat back on the edge of his unmade bed, crunching down on the first of the three nutrition bars, a cup of water by his side. He reached for the controls to the wallscreen, flipping it on.

"_-s is Anne Camino with the six o'clock news_," the artificially pretty newsreader was saying. "_Pro-environment protests in Paris are continuing, despite further warnings by-_" Jason continued to watch, half interested as he finished his breakfast. Just as he was finishing the last piece, the intercom beeped.

"Guess who?" he muttered, switching off the screen and standing up. He headed over to the intercom and switched on the screen. A familiar, dark-haired person appeared on-screen.

"Hey, Zack. You ready to roll?"

"_Course I am, Jason. I'm in the garage right now. Are you coming down?_" Jason nodded, smiling.

"I'll be right there. You can head over to the Fury already." Moving quickly, Jason snatched his packed duffel from the floor and moved for the door.

"Lights off," he commanded. For the final time, the apartment went dark.

A short elevator ride later, he emerged into the orange-lit underground garage. A few rows across, he already saw Zack waving him over. And next to his friend, shining dully in the garage's light, stood the Fury.

Matte black, low-slung and tough as a tank, the customized Chevy Stellar had to be star mechanic Jason's most prized creation. Years of his full genius and effort had gone into fine-tuning every aspect of the muscle car. In an age when private cars tended to be an item for the rich, the Fury stood out even more. And now, he was going to leave this baby behind for eighteen years.

"Good to see you, buddy." Jason high-fived his old friend. Zack grinned.

"Same to you. I see you've recovered from your party. Let's get going, then," he replied, heading over to the passengers' side. Jason nodded, pressing the access chip to the door. Like so many times before, the two ducked into the dark, comfortable interior of the Fury. With a deep growl (amplified, as a normal hydrogen engine was rather quiet), the car came to life. Jason grinned and moved her out.

They emerged into a blaze of organized chaos and clashing light. All around them, great towers of every size and shape, linked with one another on multiple levels, stretched for the hazy, orange-tainted nighttime sky. Storefronts, offices, apartments and a variety of other urban buildings made appearances, all aglow with their own lights. Seemingly every usable surface was covered with massive, multicolored advertising screens, screaming thousands of messages to the multitudes.

And multitudes there were. Monotonous masses of pedestrians, most of them wearing filter masks, milled over the foot pavement, passing shops and offices. Suspended beneath their rails, trains whooshed overhead, carrying more of the same. And over the streets drove a multi-directional flood of automobiles. Most of them were uniform, white public transport cars, but some of them, like the Fury, stood out through their uniqueness.

This was a megacity, one of the countless ones found on Earth. This was a place both famous an infamous, a legend among metropolises. This was the place that Jason DeMarcco had called his home for twenty-six years. This was New York City.

Just then, a traffic light ahead of them went green. Jason's brain went into road mode. His hold on the wheel tightened, a dangerous sort of grin appearing on his face. The Fury, true to its name, gave a deep, powerful roar.

"Let's roll!"

* * *

Approximately eighteen hours, six breaks, a bar fight (don't ask) and volumes of familiar conversation later, the Fury blazed across the dark New Mexican highway, bearing down on its destination. The vehicle's standard automatic pilot navigated the road for the companions, allowing them to sit back after their long day. Jason smiled lazily. It felt good to talk with Zack again, to head off on another road trip. After Zack had entered the business world, the two, friends since school, had sort of grown apart. _Strange, really_, he thought. _The fact that I'm going is what brought us back together._

He was brought back by the navi-computer.

"_Thirty miles. Ten minutes to destination._" the device's mechanical voice reported.

"One last sprint together, baby?" he asked the car, tapping the **manual** button on the navi-computer's screen. The Fury's growl reached a top pitch as she streaked down the road. Zack laughed a bit uncomfortably.

"Not that I don't enjoy this, but getting busted for speeding the day before leaving for Pandora would be _kind _of awkward," he said.

"Point there," Jason agreed, regretfully lessening speed. However, ahead of them, a bluish glow was already appearing in the nighttime landscape. Slowly, the contours of the spaceport became more refined. Bathed in a glow like blue fire, the spaceship-like buildings gleamed softly, promising adventure and wonder. Jason also noticed a more sinister promise: the rows of barbed wire fencing they were passing.

After a few minutes of navigation through the spaceport access roads, the Fury pulled into a subterranean garage once more. Grunting, the two unfolded themselves from the Fury. Jason grabbed his bag and swung the door shut. He turned to Zack, feeling a sudden, faint melancholy coming up. Time to say goodbye. All the formal things, the long farewells, had been said at the party two nights earlier. But now, it really was the final time.

"Hey, man." Zack patted his friend on the shoulder, his tone half melancholy, half humorous. "Have fun. Bring back some videos. Don't get yourself eaten by some alien." Jason smiled at that last one.

"Eeh. You know me," he replied half-casually. "Take good care of my baby for me, would you?" he added, lovingly patting the Fury.

"Of course." Zack took the access chip from Jason's hand. "I'll keep her in perfect condition," he said, getting in. "So long, Jason!" Jason waved his friend off, watching the Fury roar off. And with that, he turned round towards the hotel access elevator. Time to get some shut-eye.

* * *

Fully powered up after a good night's sleep and a rather luxurious breakfast, Jason strode through the connecting passage between the hotel and the Central Hall. He felt like a man on top of the world. Not to mention he was soon going to be _off _of this world. The electric tingle of adventure coursed through him, spurring him on.

He passed a duo of businessmen and emerged into the sunlit Hall. He craned his neck, trying to drink in all the details of the massive place as he walked along. He could enjoy sights later, though. First things first. Passing several kiosks, he made for the check-in computers at the far end of the chamber. After a brief scan of the screens above the counters, he found the one that said **ISV Hermes**.

Despite the early hour, several soon-to-be planetary colonists were already in front of him. _Oh, well._ Jason chose the shortest line, taking place behind three casually chatting men in camouflage uniforms. Marines, hired by the RDA's Security Operations. A dangerous place, Pandora.

The marines moved off, allowing Jason to check in. After a few false starts, he figured out the trick, and the computer beeped in acknowledgement. He fervently hoped that nobody behind him had been watching too closely. Electronics like these had never been his strong suit. He quickly checked the information. **Jason DeMarcco, A-DOJ, Avatar Pilot. **_Good. _He moved off, his appetite suddenly worked up a bit.

A few minutes later, he relaxed in his Starbucks chair, munching on a freshly purchased chocolate muffin. Artificial yet quite tasty. It was also quite pricey, so he took extra care to savor each morsel. As he was finishing, he heard a sound that did not quite fit in with the rest: reedy, twirling music.

He got up and made for the hall, taking his last bite of muffin. Standing in front of one of the pillars between shop and hall stood the source of the music: a bearded man, dressed in dusty clothes and expertly playing an old-looking woodwind instrument. The quaint little musician so captured his interest that he temporarily forgot to look ahead of him. Perhaps not such a good idea. With a rather impressive _thud_, the mechanic bodily collided with a thin, black-clad man heading in the opposite direction. Jason, being Jason, remained steady on his feet, but the unfortunate stranger was sent sprawling. _Oops. _Concerned, he bent over the man.

"Sorry. You okay?" he apologetically asked, inwardly berating himself for not looking out.

"My fault, I'm afraid," the other man replied, thankfully taking Jason's extended hand. "I didn't see where I was going." With a grunt, Jason swiftly helped the man to his feet. "Thanks," the man said, dusting himself off and reaching for his dropped bag. As the stranger straightened up, Jason frowned, interested. Middling length blond hair, blue eyes, that face... There was something familiar about this guy. The other man suddenly blinked in surprise, studying Jason's face with something like recognition.

"Jason DeMarcco?" the man asked tentatively. Jason nodded, now completely confused. "Well, well." The man raised his eyebrows, amused surprise evident on his face and in his voice. "Of all the people in this spaceport, I had to bump into my own colleague." _Well what the-?_ The man extended his hand, grinning. "Doctor Ri Dracis, Avatar pilot. Pleased to meet you."

**Author's note: **_Yes, a bit of a cliché meeting, but I couldn't resist. Now they're together, things can start getting really interesting. Up next: spaceflight, baby avatars, protests... Enough to keep on watching, methinks._


	3. 03: Introductions

03: Introductions

_Somebody out there_, Ri dryly thought as the two of them passed the hall's storefronts, _either has a very cliché sense of theatrics or a very interesting sense of humor. This is something straight out of a classic. Next thing you know, we'll be best of friends, doing heroic deeds and setting off on great adventures... _He smirked. Not that he'd mind, of course. He'd always been one for a good story. It was just that seeing the person you just bumped into also appeared on the employee list made for _quite_ the interesting surprise. _Well, at least we've been introduced now._

"So, what is it you do?" Jason asked him. The two of them had been introducing themselves as they strode along. Walking next to the massive mechanic, the slender Ri felt rather dwarfed. _Blast, he's big. Not to mention strong._ His right hand was still aching from Mr. DeMarcco's powerful handshake.

"I'm a researcher," he replied, looking up ahead and sipping his fruit smoothie. "I specialize in Ecology and Biotechnology." Jason's face took on the _Just what is that?_ kind of look. Ri grinned. "I study the way the environment works and figure out the possible uses for living things," he explained. "There's a lot more to it, but that's basically what it is."

"Uh-huh." Jason looked as if he had understood. "What're you going to be doing on Pandora, then?"

"A lot of research," he wryly replied. "I'm going to try and find out everything I can about the life forms on Pandora and what they could mean for Earth. You're going to be our technician, right?" he asked, turning to Jason.

"Yup. The big, blue grease monkey," the man cheerfully quipped. "Putting things together, taking them apart and all that. I'm also pretty good driver and I do well with guns."

"Seems like you're going to be out and about," Ri commented, intersted. Jason grunted in assent. "Wait, we can sit over here," the scientist interjected, pointing towards a pair of chairs in the central plaza, looking out over the sunlit runways and occasional spacecraft. The pair of them sat down, easing their duffels down beside them. Ri placed his fingertips together, looking at his future colleague. "This is pretty much a no-brainer," he apologized, "but still. Are you looking forward to Pandora?" Jason grinned a smile of anticipation and excitement.

"Hell yeah." Ri returned the grin. _I like this guy already._

_

* * *

_

Jason absently sat back in his chair, looking at the preparations around a pair of small shuttles. The two of them had been animatedly conversing for the past half-hour, and Jason was enjoying every minute of it. Ri was quite an interesting person to talk to. The scientist had a truly massive storehouse of knowledge and a sharp mind and ironic wit to go with it. His manners, polite yet casual, sort of reminded Jason of Zack. Maybe that was why the two of them were getting so well along. Of course, Ri's enthusiasm for Pandora also may have had something to do with it.

They had had a variety of topics. For one, they had continued speaking about themselves. Jason learned that Ri was originally Dutch, which explained the man's light European accent. Ri also told him about his former job as a researcher in Project Phoenix, the UN's massive species reintroduction program. It was pretty cool learning that the guy sitting across from you had helped recreate extinct whales. In turn, Jason had told Ri about his career as an ace mechanic, about the customization shop he ran (now safely in his sister Nora's hands) and about the Fury.

Their other major subject was, of course, Pandora. They quizzed each other in Na'vi, speculated on what they were going to see out in the wilderness and talked about the upcoming voyage. At the moment, they were discussing the latter. More specifically, the upcoming cryogenic hibernation, six years of being quite literally frozen.

"Apparently, it feels like one heck of a hangover when you wake up," Jason was saying.

"I'll have to take your word for it," the scientist cheerfully replied. "Never had one." He suddenly frowned, holding up a finger to forestall Jason's reply. "Hang on, I'm getting a phone call." He brought his other hand to his ear, touching a communicator earbud. "Dracis," he greeted. He paused, waiting for the reply. "Oh, good morning, ma'am... Yes. Excellent..." His expression cleared up. "Oh, no need, he's right here." He glanced at Jason. "We'll find the way, yes. Thank you. Goodbye." He tapped the bud again, ending the call. "Come on," he said to Jason, standing up. He stretched and picked up his bag. "We get to take a last look at our avatars before they ship them out."

"Sweet." Jason grinned, pleasantly surprised.

"I know, eh? Let's get going."

* * *

The two arrived in the especial cargo storage, a large, white room in which the more special and sensitive items waited before being loaded onto their respective spacecraft. Their uniformed escort was guiding them towards the opposite end, weaving between the waiting pallets and . Throughout the storage area, automated cargo robots and staff were moving packages about, hauling items labeled with everything from **BIOHAZARD **to **ELECTRONICS**.

"There you are, gentlemen," the woman said, gesturing towards the wall. There, secure inside metal carrying cages, lay two large, cylindrical glass containers, nearly thirteen feet long and five feet in diameter. Both tanks were connected by a variety of hoses and wires to nearby black box-like devices, which Ri knew would provide nutrition, power and other necessities during the voyage. They were also connected to several monitors, displaying pulsing vital signs. The insides of the tanks were bathed in blue light, illuminating the unusual beings drifting inside.

"Woah. That never stops amazing me." Ri had to agree with Jason's statement there. Seeing his avatar, a being that was so alien and yet so familiar, was a wonderful experience indeed. Despite being infants, the blue-skinned humanoids were already three feet long, curled into a fetal position within their mechanical womb. A twisting artificial umbilical cord linked them to the tank's mechanics. Short wisps of black hair framed serene baby's faces with massive, closed eyes, pointed ears and flattened, catlike noses. A short, smooth queue emerged from the back of their skulls, showing pinkish tendrils at the end. A small, tufted tail completed the picture. As they watched, the occasional limb twitched, shifting the Na'vi human hybrids inside their amnion.

"Hard to believe that they'll be grown up next time we see them," Jason commented, admiring the young beings. Ri nodded in assent.

"Hard to believe that they're _us_," he softly replied with the same, almost reverent, tone. Was it just him, or did he already see some resemblance between the baby's face and his own?

"Beautiful, aren't they?" a female voice interrupted them. Looking behind them, they saw a short Asian woman in a lab coat walking over. "Doctor Anna Chang," the lady greeted, extending a slender hand. "I'm one of the AVTR Program technicians." Having shaken with both of them, she joined them, scrutinizing the tanks. "You've got some good avatars there," she commented admiringly. "Can't wait to see them up and running."

"Thank you," Ri acknowledged, nodding. "I'm glad our DNA did so well." Jason, on the other hand, suddenly looked a bit embarrassed.

"Do you mind?" the mechanic asked uncomfortably, shifting. "We're, uh, sort of naked in there," he pointed out. Both Ri and Dr. Chang laughed, although Ri realized that Jason _did_ have a point there.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to embarrass you," Dr. Chang reassured them, demonstratively turning away from the tanks. "Actually, I'm supposed to be supervising the transport to the shuttle. You guys should head over to the terminal, by the way. It's almost time." A quick check of the wallscreen clock confirmed it. Ri nodded in thanks, gesturing for Jason to come along.

"Thanks, Dr. Chang. See you on Pandora."

"You're welcome, gentlemen. The same to you." With that, they set off.

* * *

Within the shortest time, they were back in the vaulted halls of the spaceport. Ri was moving at a fast clip, making long, swift strides. Jason followed up, struggling not to lose the man through the increasing crowds.

"Why do you always move so frickin' fast?" he grunted, pulling up alongside his companion. "Are you worried we're going to be late or something?"

"Right now, yes," the scientist calmly replied, his gaze still straight ahead. Jason helplessly rolled his eyes and picked up the pace. _Oh, well_. "Ah, here we are," Dracis remarked, pointing ahead.

Ahead of them, a hallway, labeled above in large, bold letters as **Terminal 3**, branched out from the main building. Zigzagging rows of queue barriers, filled with lines of people, led up to the row of security checkpoints that led to the terminal. The passengers, about one hundred of them, were marines, geologists, administrators, technicians and anybody else that would be needed on the exotic moon. Outside the barriers, a crowd had gathered. Some of the people there were saying goodbyes to the colonists, family and friends shaking hands, embracing, waving. Others still were journalists, sporting camera bots and microphones. But another, louder, angrier group...

"Oh, boy." Ri's apprehensive murmur took the words out of Jason's mouth. Environmental activists. Jason felt his pulse quicken in apprehension. _Trouble._ The protesters, some symbolically painted blue like their counterparts in Paris, were being held back by a line of uniformed security personnel and robots. The group was furiously gesturing at the waiting colonists, shouting something.

"Ayska'ayu! Ayska'ayu!" _Destroyers! Destroyers! _The chant sounded again and again, supported by signs: **Leave Pandora in peace!**, Jason read.** Parasites! Murderers!**

Just then, a pair of uniformed security officials approached the two of them. Ri and Jason flashed their RDA passes and, after a quick discussion, were escorted towards the waiting line. At that moment, Jason glimpsed one man in the protesting crowd. Instead of shouting, the activist was looking straight at them. At the same moment, Ri directly met the man's eyes, moving his hand oddly. Jason blinked. Then, they were in the line, and the other activist was out of sight.

The lines moved quickly, spurred on by the shouted protests. A quick but thorough pass through security (biometrics, ID passes, body and baggage scans) later, they joined the steady trickle of people in the connecting passage to the terminal building. Ahead of them, standing to one side, an important-looking, dark-haired man in a suit was talking to a reporter and camera.

"Well, well," Ri remarked. "Mr. Parker Selfridge. Our soon-to-be employer." _How does he remember all this stuff? _At that moment, Selfridge shook the reporter's hand and set off, apparently finished. The copper-haired reporter, on the other hand, turned towards them.

"Gentlemen! Olivia Johnson, GlobalEye News!" she called, waving them over. _Oh, man._ Turning towards the camera, she began an enthusiastic explanation. "And here are the pilots themselves. Dr. Ri Dracis, a biotechnician, and Mr. Jason DeMarcco, a mechanic, will be walking around in their very own _Na'vi bodies_ on Pandora. Tell me, just what made you decide to take on such a job?" she asked, turning her microphone towards them.

"Just relax and speak your mind," he heard Ri mutter. The scientist turned for the camera. "What, besides the pay, the bioluminescent rainforests, walking around in the body of a 3-meter-tall blue cat-being _and_ the opportunity to help planet Earth?" He shrugged, grinning. "Must have been a whim." Cautiously, Jason gave it a go.

"What he said," he added, gesturing at Ri. "There are so many things to see there, so much to discover." _Good, that didn't sound so bad._Ms. Johnson nodded.

"So, tell me..."

**Author's note: **_Well? What do you think, dear reader? Once again, please review! Suggestions for themes in further chapters are also highly welcome!_


	4. 04: Launch

04: Launch

Ri slowly paced through the sunlit terminal hall, practically shivering with anticipation. _So close! _All those years, months, days and hours of waiting and preparation had boiled down until there was almost nothing left. It was almost time to go on the adventure to end all adventures, and it was showing. Every fiber in his body was tingling with tension and excitement, his breath kept catching and he could not stop the enormous grin from spreading across his usually impassive face. _Blast, I'm reminding myself of a little kid here! _he thought, rather amused by the state he was in. _Oh, well. _He shrugged._ You can't exactly blame me for it. Nor them, for that matter._

He glanced over at the rest of the passengers, spread out in groups throughout the hall. They had all changed a few hours ago, and the mixture of uniforms, casual clothing and business suits had been replaced by the simple, white, pajama-like cryo-sleep uniforms. Several of them, like Ri, were restlessly pacing to and fro, seemingly full of excess energy. Others were speaking in small groups, using oddly low, tense tones. The positive excitement in the room was practically tangible. A wonderful thing to see, indeed, in an age of dulled, businesslike indifference.

Ri turned away from the chamber, walking over to the terminal's wall-encompassing panoramic window. Out there, connected by several loading bridges to the terminal, stood the craft they were about to board, gleaming white in the midday sun.

The Boeing Pegasus 500 Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle was a truly massive spacecraft. The triangular shuttle, easily over 100 meters long, was a powerful single-stage to orbit vehicle, designed to ferry passengers to and fro between Earth and space. Sunken beneath the angled delta wings were deep turbojet intakes, and two large, rectangular nozzles extended from the rear, ready to channel the energy from the shuttle's fusion orbital engine. The yellow RDA logo appeared brightly on the hull and on both wings.

Jason had been going on about the vehicle for quite some time now. Not that Ri minded, really; he was always prepared to learn something new. But right now, he had his mind on something else. He looked beyond the vehicles and runways, up at the cloudless sky, the desert plains, the blurred, rugged mountains, and felt the excitement temporarily melt away. Earth. The planet, devastated as it was, had been his home for all his life. This was the last look he would give this world before he left it for two decades. Slowly, symbolically, he put two hands to his chest, over his heart.

_Farewell, Mother Earth, _he thought, projecting the mental words to the battered planet, _and thank you for all that you've done for me._ He faintly smiled. _Goodbye, Mother Earth. May you one day return to your former beauty._ He stood there for a moment, adrift, a silhouette against the giant window. He became vaguely aware of movement and noise behind him. Then, a tap on his shoulder brought him back to reality.

"Hey, Ri." He turned to look up at Jason. The mechanic gestured enthusiastically, grinning broadly. "Didn't you hear him? Time to get on board!"

* * *

Moving in the shuffling line, Jason crossed the threshold between the boarding bridge and the shuttle's cabin, barely able to contain his enthusiasm. Ahead of him, the passengers made a left turn, filing down the aisle. The gray, fluorescent-lit interior of the Pegasus was arranged much like a standard aircraft, with fourteen rows of eight seats, divided by three aisles. The seats were being filled in row by row, from the back of the cabin up.

Walking in front of him, Ri had already turned into their own row, gesturing for Jason to follow. The seats were sturdy and padded, leaning backwards to compensate for the g-force. Grunting, he lowered himself into the low-set seat, wriggling into a comfortable position.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!" came a professional-sounding voice from the cabin's front. "Make sure you secure yourselves tightly using the seat harnesses. We do _not_ want people flying around at three Gs!" The statement was met with nervous laughter, followed by the metallic clicks of buckles. Smirking, Jason reached for his own harness, quickly and efficiently buckling and adjusting it.

"Apparently, you've done this before," Ri wryly remarked, fumbling with the straps of his.

"Yup. Racecars," he simply replied. Footsteps sounded as several crew members made their way up the aisle, checking everything and everyone one final time before takeoff.

"Clear!" The call was repeated several times. The final preparations were being made. Jason heard a pneumatic hiss as the hatches closed and sealed, ready to contain the craft's atmosphere. He grimaced as the cabin was pressurized, moving his jaw to relieve his eardrums. Several metallic, muffled clangs rang out, indicating the uncoupling of the loading bridges. Suddenly, he felt the Pegasus start moving, rolling over the tarmac. At the same time, the muffled whine of the jets sounded outside the cabin, steadily increasing in pitch.

"Here we go!" The words came out softly, overflowing with tense excitement. He looked over at Ri as far as the headrest would allow. The scientist gave him an energetic grin. Slowly, the Pegasus was towed in line with the runway. Jason barely noticed how tightly he was gripping the armrest as they stopped moving. Then, the engine's noise picked up, increasing from a whine to a full-fledged roar.

The shuttle began to move forwards, first slowly, then faster, then quite suddenly explosively. Turbojets roaring, it blazed across the runway, the massive acceleration pressing the passengers back into their seats. He felt a brief, queasy feeling as the craft left the ground and angled upwards. Still speeding up, it raced over the New Mexican desert, higher and faster.

"This is quite something!" Ri half said, half shouted over the noise of the jets.

"This is nothing!" Jason shouted back. "When we hit scramjet , we'll _really_ be moving!" Ri's face got an _Oh, dear_ sort of look. Just then, the shuttle, now traveling faster than the speed of sound, switched to its supersonic combustion ramjet. Translation: fast. With a bellowing roar of engines, the Pegasus practically exploded forwards. The speed of it was amazing.

"_Potver-!_" The rest of Ri's Dutch curse of surprise was effectively cut off as the g-force poured onto them like a truckload of sand. It felt like a high-powered roller coaster, one in which the gs were solidly maintained all the while. Jason laughed, or tried to, in exhilaration as the blood rushed to his head. _This is insane! _And it wasn't over yet.

Trailing a thundering sonic boom, the Pegasus roared high over America, still ascending. It reached the transmission altitude at over seven times the speed of sound. At that point, it switched engines.. As the jets lost power and shut down, the fusion orbital engine activated. Two blazing plumes erupted from the fusion nozzles, flinging the shuttle forwards and upwards, up to orbital velocity. The sky paled, darkening to black, as the spacecraft flashed through the last vestiges of Earth's atmosphere, leaving the cloud-dusted landscape far below it.

Inside, Jason slowly felt the g-force on his body begin to lessen. The acceleration was slowing down. He could breathe normally again, and the extra blood drained from his head. The shuttle had gone oddly quiet, the engines silenced. He blinked, frowning. Something felt weird.

High, enormously high above Earth, the Pegasus flew with several miles per second, its lateral speed balancing its free fall, bringing them in an endless circle. They were in orbit. The flight had taken less than fifteen minutes.

"Zero gravity," Ri remarked. The scientist was looking with interest at his hand, holding it oddly in front of him. His blond hair was drifting as if he were underwater.

"Woah," Jason murmured, disoriented. It sort of, but not completely, felt like hanging upside down. There was a weak, giddy feeling in the pit of his stomach, almost as if he were falling. All around the cabin, a chorus of remarks sounded, the passengers both recovering from the powerful ride and adjusting to the unusual conditions. He experimentally moved his own arm. It did so effortlessly, without the familiar force pulling it down. "Cool." He suddenly groaned, feeling a bit sick.

"Spacesickness," Ri remarked, looking at him. "Your inner ear depends on gravity to give you a sense of balance. Without it, your system's basically going haywire."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, concentrating on letting the feeling pass. "How do I make it go away?"

"Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and relax," the scientist advised. Jason noted to some irritation that he himself was completely unaffected. "If that doesn't work, just use the bag."

"Ha, ha."

* * *

Looming high above the blue and white orb of Earth, the vast Interstellar Vehicle Hermes stood in wait, ready to undertake its enormous journey. This was no noble, heroic voyage of discovery, however. The Capital-class starship, one of nine created by the RDA, was a commercial freighter, a part of the endless loop between Earth and Pandora. The ship would carry supplies, personnel and multiple trillion dollar's worth of the superconductor unobtanium. The thin design of the thing, stretching for a mile, appeared flimsy at first sight, until one remembered that this was a world without gravity.

Positioned at the bow of the starship were the enormous H-shaped matter/antimatter engines. Enormous twin nozzles, intended to focus the photons of energy that produced the ship's thrust, extended behind the flattened, ribbed radiators that dispelled the excess heat. Between those were four massive, spherical fuel containers, containing their icy load of anti-hydrogen. Pointing forwards between the two radiators was the long, thin rod of the photon sail deployer, which would propel the ship forwards using the power of light itself.

Extending behind the engine head was the long, thin carbon-composite tractor tether. About two-thirds down was a trio comparatively small box-shaped modules, clustered around the tether. These were the cryo chambers, ready to keep their two hundred passengers in suspended animation for the duration of the journey. Directly behind that, two cylindrical containers whirled around the tether, providing centrifugally-produced gravity for the small crew.

In front of those, clustered like the cryo modules, were the cargo containers, filled with data storage cubes, electronics and other items needed from Earth. On the return journey, these would contain the ship's entire _raison d'etre_, superconductive unobtanium. And behind that, docking by its top side to the extending access tube, was the Pegasus.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" the same crew member as before was already giving instructions through the cabin. "Your attention please! When you hear your name called out, please make your way to the hatch using the overhead handrails. You will then take the conveyor to the cryo chambers. Understood?" A short pause, with some murmurs of affirmation. "Good! Jamie Anderson!" One by one, the colonists' names were called out in alphabetical order. The people in question unbuckled their harnesses and headed up (that is, what used to be up) towards the ceiling of the craft, moving hand over hand using the attached bars.

"Jason DeMarcco!" Ri looked over at his friend, extending his hand. They awkwardly shook in the weightlessness.

"See you in six years, Jason."

"Yeah. See you in six, Ri." Jason unbuckled his harness and pushed off with his legs towards the ceiling. Underestimating his momentum, he promptly crashed into the tiles.

"Oo!" Ri theatrically winced. "Careful up there!" he mildly remarked, looking up.

"You're hilarious, you know that?" came the sarcastic reply.

"Of course I do," Ri called back, unperturbed. "Sleep tight, Jason."

"Ri Dracis!" came the crewman's call. Ri loosened his harness and gently pushed himself up to the ceiling, which suddenly became the new "down". _Still can't completely get used to this._ Hand over hand, he pulled himself over to opened hatch. A waiting crew member guided the small group that had collected there down the access tube towards the central tunnel. There, they all grabbed onto a sort of handles, attached to a rail that ran the length of the dimly lit tunnel. The crewman pressed a button, sending them rolling towards the cryo chambers. They flashed by the lights placed at regular intervals, the rails quickly and efficiently carrying them down the tunnel.

One by one, they emerged into the assigned chamber through the opened, thick airlock. The cryosleep chamber, shaped like a long, octagonal prism, extended the for the length of the module, was lit a sterile white-blue by muted lamps. Going down both sides of the chamber were the long rows of open cryo pod doors, their back-to-back stretchers out and waiting for passengers. Medical personnel in scrubs were floating around, guiding the passengers to their respective pods.

"Right this way." The medi-tech beckoned him to follow. They made their way down the chamber, passing several closed pods. "Here you are." She pointed to one of the beds. Ri carefully maneuvered himself onto the stretcher. Moving efficiently and professionally, the woman fastened the padded restraints to his chest, midriff and legs, strapping him in tightly. He briefly winced as several IV needles went into his arm, connecting him to the system. Behind his back, he was aware of another passenger being fixed to the flip side of the pod.

"All clear," the medi-tech remarked, giving a professional, cheerful smile. "Have a nice rest, sir." With a whirring _hiss_, the gurney slid into its pod, sealing it. Ri was left in a bluish darkness. He took a deep breath, feeling his heart race. He struggled to handle his thoughts, which were whirling in a thousand and one directions. He closed his eyes, slowly calming down. He felt something flow through the IV: an anesthetic to prepare him for hibernation. A faint smile graced his face as he sank into blackness. _Off to the world beyond __my wildest dreams..._

Jason DeMarcco, a rather tight fit in the small cryo pod, also felt the onset of unconsciousness as he lay there, ready to fly. _This would be a good time to catch up on some lost sleep..._

_

* * *

_

Out on the bow of the Hermes, a truly spectacular sight was taking place. Slowly, incredibly carefully, an immense and incredibly thin mirror was unfolding. A full sixteen kilometers in diameter, the photon sail deployed from the bow, handled with exquisite care by the small robots that were opening it. The silvery mirror reflected light almost perfectly, displaying a faultless image of the ISV and the round, clouded horizon of planet Earth.

Further behind the craft, a carefully calibrated power-laser opened fire on the mirror. The pressure of the concentrated photons caught the sail, slowly beginning to propel the spaceship forwards. In the upcoming six-month acceleration phase, the Hermes would be taken up to a stunning 210 thousand kilometers per second, seventy percent of the speed of light.

In their modules, the two hundred colonists rested in suspended animation, frozen so deeply that none of life's functions could possibly continue. They would remain so, perfectly preserved, until the competition of the journey.

Floating inside their artificial wombs, the two baby avatars gently shifted, occasionally twitching a limb or a tail. Slowly, slowly, they began their growth to adulthood.

Twenty-six trillion miles away, a distance which light itself could only transverse in more than four years, orbiting around a blue gas giant that in turn was orbiting around the star Alpha Centauri A, was a moon. The orb was a mixture of blue seas, white, whirling clouds and green-covered continents, almost completely untainted, pristine. And on the night side, the careful observer could notice a faint, multicolored glow. This was Pandora. The journey had begun.

**FIRST TRANSMISSION TERMINATED**

**Author's note: **_First transmission is finished! Well, dear readers? Please, please, give as much feedback as you can! By this time, suggestions for further topics are also welcome. What would _you _like to see happen?_


	5. 05: Alpha Centauri

**INITIATING SECOND TRANSMISSION**

05: Alpha Centauri

A thick, warm breeze blew through the nighttime air, gently ruffling the luminescent canopy. The soft rustling of the leaves mingled with the dozens of chirps, whoops and other noises made by the multitudes of creatures. Midnight lay over the jungle like a thick blanket, protective and calm.

Suddenly, a dark shape flitted forth, quickly darting over a branch. Bare feet leaving faint, green-glowing tracks behind on the furry moss, it lightly ran across the giant bough, graceful and silent. With a sinuous, feline ease, it vaulted a gap between two limbs, then caught another one above it in full stride, flipping itself upwards. Crouching, it paused for a moment, then slowly straightened and continued down the massive bough.

Slowly, it stepped down towards the end. A dark, slender four-fingered hand brushed aside the curtain of leaves, opening a panoramic view into the night.

In a magnificent display, the nighttime sky arched high, the thousands of stars matching the glow of the forests beneath them. The being looked out at that sky, searching. Enormous, beautiful golden eyes, framed in deep blue and shining white flecks, gazed out into the vastness above.

There, shining brightly among its fellows, was a star. A star that had not been there before. Gleaming a bright white, it twinkled there. So tiny, yet so incredibly significant. The eyes narrowed. A single, whispered word, layered with harsh emotion, broke the silence.

"Tawtute,"

* * *

Up, far up in the utter vastness of space, the source of that light drew closer. Bearing down like a great, cosmic arrow, swift and unwavering, the Interstellar Vehicle Hermes flew on. For over five and a half years, the great craft had been transversing interstellar space, moving so fast that time itself had slowed inside. Now, although it still transversed over a hundred miles in a single second, it was slowing down, finally approaching its destination.

The Hermes, its sail long since stowed away, was now flying tail-first, the three consecutive rear shields leading. The diamond-shaped shields, deceptively thin-looking, had defended the ship against any potential spare particles. At those vast speeds, even the tiniest grain of dust could do enormous damage to the Hermes' hull. For now, their task was finished. Reflected in their mirror-like surfaces, however, was a truly spectacular sight.

Ahead, looming up against the star-spangled blackness, was a massive, azure planet. The great gas giant, its atmosphere banded in complex patterns of blue and white, completely dominated the scene before the spacecraft, dwarfing it to utter insignificance. Polyphemus, named for its great, eye-shaped spot. From one side, mother star Alpha Centauri A illuminated one half of the planet, plunging the other into darkness. That black half, however, had a faint, orange glow to it: a second, sister star, much further away, also leant its light to this alien world.

More important, though, were the objects moving around this planet. Tiny, seeming like mere specs against the great azure background, multiple moons stood suspended around their mother planet, casting small, round shadows on the banded, gaseous atmosphere.

Just then, the Hermes began going into another decelerating burn, like those it had been utilizing for the past six months. Though being nowhere near its earlier, titanic speeds, it still needed to slow down before it could make the final approach.

Deep inside the H-shaped engine head, past powerful magnetic generators and shielding, a comparatively small, transparent orb hovered in the vacuum, seeming tiny and insignificant. The liquid globe, specially cooled to near-absolute zero, was electrostatically charged, carefully held in place within its magnetic field. This was no ordinary liquid. This was antihydrogen, the polar opposite of the common element hydrogen. Antimatter, that nearly mythical substance. By themselves, neither matter nor antimatter were unduly remarkable. Together, however, they were terrible indeed.

Further down the dark engine tube, a line of magnetic pulses guided a thin, constant jet of ionized hydrogen straight down the center. Straight for the waiting antimatter. It shot down in a fraction of a second, spearing the orb of anti-hydrogen -

- and annihilating the both of them. Within the atoms, particles and antiparticles met, instantly converting their entire mass into photons of energy. In a flash, the opposing substances were replaced by a truly titanic explosion of power. Simultaneously, long lines of unobtanium-powered supermagnets fired, their pulses channeling the vast force straight down and out.

Twin plumes of searing white energy erupted from the nozzles, blasting past the ship and forwards into space. In one ten-thousandth of a second, the bolts extended a full thirty kilometers ahead, shining a bright white. The ship's sides were bathed in incandescent, blinding light as the twin beams pulsed, the terrible reaction repeated over and over within the engine's core.

The engines also began taking their designated effect. In an equal and opposite reaction to the mammoth amounts of kinetic energy they were releasing, they were forced back, pulling against the ship's momentum. The reversed power efficiently and spectacularly brought down the Hermes' speed for the final phase.

Back in the core, the fusion, its carefully calculated fuel now spent, ceaced. Without it, the exhaust plumes vanished, recombining and burning out in an instant. The flat, ribbed twin radiators now glowed a bright, cherry red, slowly dispelling the vast amounts of produced heat into the surrounding vacuum. The Hermes, now down to speed, had almost finished its journey.

* * *

Darkness. A deep, thick blackness, engulfing his mind and body. He was adrift, floating between the shadowy depths and the faint light of reality. Slowly, very slowly, his thoughts made their way through that fog, disjointed and disoriented. There was no up, no down There was no sense of time, except for the faint rhythm of breathing in the small space. His own, he absently realized. He lay there, only half awake, barely aware of his surroundings.

Gradually, the little tendrils of thought grew stronger, making their way out of the fog. He was waking up. Carefully, struggling to make his muscles obey him once more, doctor Ri Dracis opened his eyes. A haze of dark blue slowly came into focus. He was lying in the half-lit interior of a cryo pod, carefully strapped to the gurney.

_I'm... awake,_ his mind slowly realized. _I can think straight, too,_ he mentally added, always one to value his thoughts. He suddenly grimaced, squeezing his eyes back shut. Along with his consciousness, the end of anesthesia had also given him back a sense of his body, and it felt battered. His mouth and throat felt bone-dry, his muscles were aching, and a pounding sensation was rousing itself deep within his skull. His entire body felt drained, wrung-out somehow. He shivered, suddenly chilled to the bone.

_Small wonder,_ he thought, managing a tight grin despite everything. _I've been an ice cube for the better part of six years. My body's still rebooting, and that's not liable to be easy. _He frowned, that train of thought reminding him of something. _Six years... Awake..._

With an electrifying jolt of realization and a sharp, hissing gasp, he comprehended the full magnitude of the situation. Suddenly, all the aches and pains of awakening seemed to pale to nothingness, making way for an ecstatic, amazing joy. A smile slowly spreading across his face, he managed to speak.

"Pandora." His voice was soft, hoarse, but it was alive. Alive with new power. "We're there."

* * *

After five years of oblivious, silent flight and inactivity, the interior of the Hermes was now coming alive with preparations.

Within the slowly whirling twin habitation modules, a five-man crew moved around, professionally and thoroughly checking on power systems, module status reports and the other various supercomputer systems.

Inside the cargo canisters that flanked the central tether, an efficient, automatic system began moving pallets of data cubes, electronics and other supplies towards the access tubes. There, they were loaded into the waiting pair of Valkyrie cargo shuttles, ready to be shipped off.

The auxiliary atmospheric system was activated, pumping breathable air into the hallways of the cryo modules. Medi-techs and other necessary personnel emerged from their hibernation and began doing their own rounds.

Outside, however, far past the busy ship, was a truly beautiful sight. Extending beneath the spacecraft in every direction, accompanied in the background by its vast mother planet, was Pandora at last, in all her glory.

The moon's contours gently curved, seeming perfectly spherical and smooth from high above. Highlighted around the edges by the strangely thin, bluish shell of its atmosphere, the satellite's surface was a mass of green and brown tints, broken by the azure of the seas. Those shapes were partially obscured by the cotton-like whirls and specs of clouds, gleaming white in the sunlight.

Down there, in the water, on the ground, in the air, life thrived, appearing in thousands upon thousands of forms. How very appropriate that humanity had named this world All-Giver.

Down there were a thousand and more worlds to discover, each as strange, dangerous and fantastic as the next. Up here, though, in the silence of space, there was a certain, deep peace to this pristine world.

Cleaving its way through orbit high above the fair orb, the Hermes loomed up, ready to send its cargo down into that hellish paradise. The gears of adventure had truly been set in motion.

* * *

With a pneumatic _hiss_, the cryo pod slowly slid open, pulling a rather groggy Jasson DeMarcco into the white, prismical module chamber. The big man winced as the artificial, bluish-white light stabbed his sensitive eyes, adding to the already uncomfortable headache. When he managed to ease them open again, he found himself focusing on the face of the medi-tech floating above him.

"Where's my bacon?" DeMarcco murmured in a half-daze, still having trouble organizing the hazy whirl of thoughts in his head. Breakfast, being a well-liked and steady routine for him, got the right of way. The drifting medi-tech grinned, maneuvering himself to unfasten the gurney's straps.

"Good morning, sleepy," the man cheerfully remarked, peering down at Jason's drowsy face. "Feeling okay?" Jason gave a muffled groan, feeling the full aftereffects of the hibernation. _Yup, this feels like a hangover_, he confirmed to himself, grimacing.

"I'm fine," he muttered, half-sarcastic. The medi-tech gave a knowing sort of chuckle, shaking his head.

"Sure, sure. You'll feel better in a bit, when your body gets back up to steam. Try not to get sick just yet, okay?" Jason bit back a retort, concentrating on making his newly awakened mind get its full bearings back. The straps around Jason's body finally came loose, and he took a deep, yawning breath, enjoying the fresh flow of oxygen.

All around him, the passengers were exiting their pods, most of them seeming to be in the same condition as himself. They drifted around in the zero gravity, slowly moving stiff, aching muscles, blinking against the light. Putting on an "announcement" voice, a crew member at one end shouted out the information and instructions.

"People, you have been in cryo for five years, nine months and three days. You will be hungry, you will be weak. If you feel nausea, please use the bags provided for your convenience," the bulletin sounded through the chamber. "We thank you in advance," the man added in a drier tone. That last statement was met with a few weak, half-hearted chuckles.

Rubbing his arm where the IVs had gone in, Jason pushed over to the other side of the "aisle", only half listening to the announcement. Carefully maneuvering himself (he now knew that using too much force would painfully slam him into the other end), he made for the rows of off-white, labeled plastic lockers, selecting the one that read **DeMarcco, Jason.**

Several minutes later, and feeling slightly better than before, he floated into the gray, fluorescent-lit interior of the Valkyrie. Unlike the Pegasus, which was a comfortable shuttle especially designed for passenger travel, the Valkyrie was more or less a cargo plane. The center of the vehicle's large load bay was occupied by sturdy pallets of supplies, leaving only the sides for passengers. The fold-down seats lined both sides, facing inwards towards the center of the shuttle. He winced. _We're going to have to take that g-force sideways._

Following the line of passengers, the big mechanic moved hand over hand down the craft, searching for a spot. Suddenly, over the low, general murmur of the passengers, a familiar, lightly accented voice sounded out.

"Jason! Over here!" Ri, looking pale and tired, but quite awake, gestured over a few seats away. Grinning, Jason carefully manipulated himself into the simple seat, tightly buckling the restraining harness.

"Hey, Ri," he greeted, turning his head to the right to look at the scientist. Ri returned the smile, eyes seeming to gleam in excitement.

"Long time, no see, Jason," the slender man cheerfully remarked, putting on a casual tone despite his apparently weakened condition. "Glad to see you back in the world of the living."

"Why couldn't they have given us something against this _feeling?_" Jason complained.

"I know, eh? Remind me never to get drunk," Ri replied, gently massaging his temples. "Hope it's not too bad."

"So-so. I just really want to get out and _do _something. You know, go to the gym, take something apart, just get out there." He was practically itching to leave this half-real world in space, to be active again.

"Mhh." Ri gave a murmur of assent. He looked up, now with a wry, half-humorous expression on his face. "Happy new years, by the way. We're in 2150 now." Jason nodded. That statement reminded him of where they actually were, something his mind had failed to completely grasp. Now, the fantastic, almost unreal realization of what was going on hit him in full. _We're there! _ _We're actually there! _The thought flashed through him like a fireworks show, filling him with tingling energy.

"Pandora," he managed to murmur, suddenly choked with excitement. Ri nodded, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. The scientist looked tense, but also oddly content, peaceful.

"Pandora," he agreed. "Welcome to paradise."

**Author's Note: **_The journey may be over, but the adventure's just begun! And now, it's your turn, dear reader. This series will be exploring a lot of elements around Hell's Gate. What would you like to see happen here? I'm open to all suggestions!  
_


	6. 06: Landfall

06: Landfall

Moving with a slow, floating grace through the weightlessness, the black and white, delta-winged Valkyrie Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle carefully separated itself from the Hermes' docking node, drifting away. The triangular cargo shuttle was vast, its crooked-tipped wings, marked with the RDA logo, spanning a full eighty meters. Besides the usual orbital thrusters and turbojet intakes, the vehicle boasted four vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL, thrusters, making it ideal for use in the primitive conditions on Pandora.

Secondary thrusters gently firing, the cargo shuttle slowly flipped over, maneuvering it into position below its mothership. Beneath the spacecraft, the vast, blue-highlighted orb of Pandora rose up, its cloud-dusted landscape visible in minute details. It was time to initiate re-entry.

Inside the arching, gray cargo bay, sixty or so scientists and technicians waited in an excited silence, strapped down to the fold-down chairs lining either side wall. A few feet in front of them, in the middle of the bay, tall, covered pallets of supplies waited, carefully secured and ready to be deployed below.

The atmosphere inside the bay was almost tangibly charged with nervous anticipation. Aside from the odd, mechanical hum or rumble from outside, the chamber was silent, loaded with unspoken, excited apprehension. The interstellar colonists waited there, anxious and expectant.

Ri took a, deep, shaky breath, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. His sweaty hands restlessly clenched and unclenched, reflecting the chaotic state of his mind. _We're finally there!_ The thought flashed through him over and over again, sending him reeling with its enormity. He closed his eyes, a weak chuckle escaping him. It took a lot to bring him, a very even-tempered and rather impassive person, in this state. _Let's face it, though_, he silently acknowledged. _This _is_ a lot._ Although he knew that he had gone over this so many times, it didn't look like he was going to get used to it any time soon.

Beside him, Jason gave the same laugh.

"I know, huh?" the mechanic sympathized, giving Ri a somewhat unstable grin. Ri mutely nodded in return. They both knew what they were feeling. Neither of them felt capable of speaking more than a few words.

Just then, the Valkyrie, having cleared the Hermes, began the primary deceleration stage. The shuttle, now upside-down with its nose towards the rear, began firing its orbital fusion engines. Glowing a whitish-yellow against the blackness of space, the plumes burst from the twin long, rectangular nozzles, gradually reducing the vehicle's speed.

Inside, Ri gave a slight _oof_ as the inertia of deceleration hit him, the force pushing him sideways, towards the back of the craft. He peered up at Jason, who was also being pressed against his harnesses by

"Down we go," he remarked, a tad apprehensively.

"Ooh, yeah." Jason's face spread into one of his wide, eager grins. All things considered, not a good sign. Ri sighed, his face set in the resigned, dry expression of somebody who's headed for disaster for the umpteenth time.

"Ooh, bother,". _Things are going to get a little_ _rough here._

Above them, the massive, narrow form of the Hermes slowly passed them by as the shuttle's speed dropped with several hundred miles an hour. Compared to both vehicle's enormous speeds, this decrease was merely a pittance, but it was enough to bring a subtle change into the Valkyrie's orbit. The balance between free fall and lateral speed shifted, giving gravity the upper hand. Slowly, the shuttle began losing altitude, sinking down to the moon below.

With small, yellowish flashes around the nose and rear of the flattened, triangular spacecraft, secondary maneuvering engines gently fired, shifting its attitude. The vehicle slowly flipped in mid-flight, bringing it around from its inverted position. The Valkyrie's black nose now pointed up at a bizarrely steep, forty-degree angle, its tiled belly turned forwards towards the approaching atmosphere.

Ri felt a slight quiver run through the craft. The now-familiar beginnings of g-force began to press at him. First like a weak, ghostly touch, then steadily growing stronger, the invisible force started pushing, forcing him down into his chair and left, towards the nose. A ghostly, excited murmur ran through the cabin. _We're hitting air._

Outside, the first vestiges of Pandora's atmosphere whirled and roiled around the Valkyrie as the great spacecraft flashed through it at over eight thousand meters per second. First faintly, then increasingly visible, a streaming, white contrail, a great jet of mist, collected around the ship's front and upward-curved wingtips, trailing into the distance like a massive streamer.

Suddenly, a crewman's voice sounded through the cabin.

"Brace for banking! G-force, incoming!" _Uh-oh._

In a graceful, seemingly slow maneuver, the shuttle banked, tilting a full seventy degrees to the side. This approach, bringing the craft into a great, S-shaped curve, would help dissipate speed and maintain its angle of decent. Right now, though, the passengers couldn't care less. They had other things on their minds as they were treated to a blast of solid g-force. They were unceremoniously flung either back into their seats or hard into their tight, restraining harnesses.

"_Oh, great_," Ri managed to grind out from between clenched teeth, his body straining against the solid straps of the harness. That was just about all he could manage at the moment. The pushing, pulling, thundering forces here were no less than insane. More than ever, he was reminded of some high-powered roller coaster, except that this _didn't_ have the usual 3D special effects, or even the comfortable seats.

Not _everybody_ seemed to be bothered, though. Although he couldn't be quite sure, being quite unable to turn his head at the time, he had a nagging suspicion that Jason was still _grinning_. Even more interesting, a part of _him _was enjoying this as well.

Outside, soaring a full seventy kilometers above Pandora's surface, the Valkyrie had become a truly spectacular sight. The intense, high-speed impact of myriad upon myriad of air molecules on the craft's belly, nose and wings had generated enormous amounts of heat. The black, carbon-fiber thermal protection tiles flared a glowing, cherry red as they were searingly heated by the friction.

The contrail, which by now practically engulfed the entire craft, had ionized from the amazing temperature, transforming from a cloudy white to an incandescent, fiery orange. Like a great, blazing comet, the Valkyrie shot down through the atmosphere, tracing a flaming, glowing trail through the sky as it continued on its curving route.

Bit by bit, the enormous friction took its desired effect. With every passing moment, the shuttle gradually decelerated, ploughing deeper and deeper, slower and slower, through Pandora's air.

* * *

The Valkyrie flew through a sunlit world, suspended between the layers of puffy white clouds below and the deep blue reaches above. At ten thousand feet of altitude, it really _was_ flying, having made the final transition between spaceship and airplane. Having lost its orbital speed to the enormous friction, the shuttle was now powered forwards by the air-breathing turbojets. The fiery, ionized cloud that had surrounded the shuttle had long since vanished, replaced by thin, white streaks trailing from the wings.

Inside the craft's cargo bay, Jason sank back into the rubber padding of his seat, feeling the effects of gravity's return. From the moment the banking had stopped, the feelings of up and down had come back again. Gone was that weak, floating feeling, replaced by a strange, rather satisfying heaviness. Experimentally, he lifted an arm, then dropped it back to his side. It was back to normal.

He glanced at Ri, who was also leaning back somewhat, eyes closed, face set in an unreadable expression. The scientist looked a tad battered. _Guess he's not really used to that kind of force, huh? _he thought, with some satisfied amusement. Grinning, he turned all the way, nudging Ri.

"Feeling okay?" he cheerfully asked.

"Yeah, sure," came the groaned, sardonic reply. The smaller man straightened, vigorously shaking his head. His eyes blinked open. "Actually, that felt sort of good," he continued, now sounding much more active and cheerful. "Just kind of intense."

Tracing a white streak through the sunlit sky, the Valkyrie angled downwards, descending towards the thick, rolling layer of clouds down below. The engines' rumble steadily decreased in pitch as they powered down. They were getting close.

Inside, conversations were slowly picking up as the colonists recovered from re-entry, somewhat dizzy from their return from zero-g.

"Okay, people, listen up!" A clear, authority-filled female voice sounded through the cabin, energetic but businesslike. A tall, dark-haired woman, dressed in sturdy, khaki clothing, strode down the aisle. "Welcome to Pandora, everybody!" She had a certain air of command around her as she walked down, scrutinizing the seated passengers. Definitely somebody in control, somebody who was good at it.

Seeing that she had gotten everybody's attention, the woman continued with the same, half-shouted voice. "All right, first things first. My name's Diane Charleston. I'm a crew chief here at Hell's Gate. You'll be under my authority for the time being." She turned and slowly stepped back up the aisle, passing Jason for a second time.

"We'll have plenty of time for a good introduction later. First of all, though, we need to get you in. I want to see Exopacks out, everybody!" Officer Charleston was reminding Jason more and more of his sergeant at the flight academy. He muttered that to Ri as they both reached beneath their seats, taking care that the officer was out of range.

"Interesting," Ri murmured back with his usual sardonic tone, straightening back up. "And we're the civilians here. Hate to think of who the marines get." Smirking, Jason got out his own Exo from its .

The two-part, lightweight system, consisting of a green, boxlike filter connected by a pair of tubes to the clear plastic mask, was going to be one of his lifelines on the planet. Being a New Yorker, he'd worn similar filter masks plenty of times before. With the big-city pollution as it was, going outside without one was practically suicide.

Now that everybody had gotten out their masks, Charleston continued. "Make sure the seal is on _tight_! I shouldn't have to remind any of you how toxic it is out there." All sixty colonists went into action, untangling the thin tubes and pulling the masks on over their faces. Jason fixed the straps over his own brown curls, feeling the mask's black polymer edge make a light, tight seal around his face. He pushed the flow valve, hearing the _hiss_ of air and taking a deep, experimental breath.

* * *

Surrounded by the great, white and gray billows of cloud around it, the Valkyrie continued its descent, passing deeper and deeper into the layer. Suddenly, an enormous, triangular shape loomed out of the shadows, obscured by the grayish mist. Suddenly, as the fog around it cleared, the great form revealed itself. A great, jagged peak, covered in a dense fur of vegetation and wreathed in fog, jutted up towards the sky, dwarfing the spacecraft. The shuttle banked slightly to one side, passing the mountain -

- and emerging from the cloud cover into a stunning vista. Rays of sunlight, passing through sporadic holes in the cloud cover, illuminated the scene below. Extending below and around the shuttle in every direction, a rolling landscape of crags and mesas stretched out, carpeted in a vast, virgin rainforest. The topmost tips of the peaks extended up above the shadows, wreathed in great swirls of mist.

Below the shuttle, the titanic trees swayed, blown by the great craft's wake as it passed above, closer than ever. The trees were strange, too large, oddly shaped and colored. Here and there, the canopy was broken, revealing the bare rock of a cliffside or the faint, shimmering sparkle of a winding river. In the distance, flocks of flying creatures emerged from the treetops, too far to be truly seen. It was a magnificent landscape, vast, forbidding and alien, yet utterly beautiful.

With a rattling thrum of rotor blades, the Valkyrie's escort flew in from below. Angular hulls gleaming a dull, military gray-green in the sunlight, the AT-99 Scorpion Gunships approached the shuttle, their twin tiltrotors maneuvering them into a loose formation around the massive craft. Compared to modern vehicles, which were equipped with self-regenerating armor, electromagnetic weapons, independent autopilots and whatnot, these simple helicopters seemed almost antique. They were, however, perfectly suited to the hellish environment that was Pandora.

Then, as the Valkyrie passed over a ridge, the landscape abruptly changed, dropping away below. An enormous pit, a full two and a half miles wide, had been torn into the face of the jungle, ragged, rocky and dead. The sides of the crater had been excavated into concentric terraces, spiraling down into the center.

Surrounded by billows of grayish-tan dust, titanic yellow excavator machines, their saw-toothed bucket wheels alone size of large buildings, carved away at the bottom, dwarfed by the mine around them. Lines of enormous dump trucks led away from the excavators, carrying their load of ore up the terraces. This was the RDA's reason of existence on Pandora, the place that provided the tons of unobtanium required by modern society: Extra-Solar Mine 01.

Flying over the mine, the Valkyrie prepared to transition to hover mode. As the turbojets powered down completely, the shuttle's four down-facing VTOL engines were activated, the thunderous roar mingling with the sound of the Scorpions' rotors. The turbines' intakes drew in enormous amounts of air, blasting it down and out. The exhaust nozzles vectored, angling the four streams down and forwards.

Like a great, ancient steam train reaching its station, the Valkyrie ponderously lost the last of its speed, its enormous momentum countered by the thundering jets of air. The shuttle slowly dipped back down to a horizontal position, hovering more than flying. Moving at what seemed like a snail's pace, still supported by the VTOL jets, it continued forwards, over the mine. And there on the opposite side, forming a stark, menacing contrast with the surrounding jungle, stood Hell's Gate.

Officially the Resources Development Administration's Extra-Solar Colony 01, the enormous, gray complex, easily covering nine square kilometers, was the most important human facility on Pandora. This place was the nerve center of the RDA's massive project, importing and exporting orders, information, supplies and the precious superconductor itself.

Enclosing the facility was a pentagonal, chain-link perimeter fence, each side two kilometers long. The fences were imposing, ten feet tall, electrified and topped with roll upon roll of razor wire. At each corner, tall concrete weapon towers held the watch over the surrounding jungle, mounted with large, deadly automated sentry guns and bright searchlights. Similar, smaller towers lined each side at regular intervals, presenting a wall of death for anything that would dare approach. The place was truly a fortress.

The colony itself was all concrete and metal. Taking up the western third of the facility were the tall, steel towers of the refinery and stereolithography plant, their tops smoking as the work inside progressed.

Rolling in through a sturdy, giant gate at one corner were several of the titanic, ore-carrying dump trucks. The huge vehicles slowly moved down the tarmac inside, heading for the refinery where they could dump their load. They weren't the only ones about. Giant, robot-like Amplified Mobility Platform suits moved to and fro, dwarfing the people at their side. Various vehicles, large and small, rolled around the colony, doing their tasks with a powerful, quick efficiency.

The center of the facility was taken up by several squat, concrete structures, arranged into an arrowhead formation and connected by sealed, tunnel-like hallways. These were the modules, which contained habitation, control centers and research laboratories, among others.

And there, occupying the final third of Hell's Gate, was the airfield, its tarmac landing pad cleared and ready. The enormous Valkyrie, escort around it and landing gear deployed and ready, slowly passed over the perimeter wall, jets blasting a whirling storm of wind and dust in every direction. The people on and around the landing pad took cover as the massive vehicle gently settled onto its landing gear. The jets powered down, going from a deep, deafening roar to a light, humming whine. It had well and truly arrived on Pandora.

Jason felt the soft _thump_ through the seat as the Valkyrie made contact with the tarmac. He restlessly shifted in his harness, eager and on edge, hearing his breaths lightly echoed in the clear plastic shell of his Exo. _Touchdown!_ He could still hardly believe it.

As the engines' whine slowly changed in pitch outside, Officer Charleston made her way down the aisle, making for the slanted rear wall of the cabin: the cargo ramp.

"Okay, get ready to move, everybody! When that door opens, go straight to the base! Do _not_ stop or slow down, go directly inside!"

The bay was filled with movement as the passengers unbuckled their harnesses and shuffled into a line, their duffles at the ready. Once again, everybody was silent, expectant. Jason stood and stretched, feeling weird after the journey. His muscles were still a bit stiff, and he felt oddly light. Those thoughts were still in the background, though, as he fixed his eyes on the ramp, ready.

With a deep, hydraulic whine, the rear wall came into motion, slowly folding down. With a hissing _whoosh_, thick, warm Pandoran air rolled into the shuttle, shimmering like a heat mirage where it hit the bay's own atmosphere. Jason felt his eardrums pop slightly as they were hit by the pressure. The air almost felt like warm water, comfortable and dense.

Then, through the widening opening, the first sunbeams peeked in, spreading their golden light through the bay. And as the hatch opened completely, it revealed the world outside. Behind the steel and concrete buildings, strange, magnificent trees rose up, reaching for a sky dominated by a great blue gas planet.

Jason whooped, punching the air. They had arrived.

**Author's Note: **_Well, my longest chapter yet! Again, please read, review, and give me your suggestions! Thank you once again!_


	7. 07: Hell's Gate

"All right, people, let's go! Head for the main entrance, building up front! Jogging pace, double file!" Charleston's commands rang out through the bay, sending everybody into motion. With a rolling thud of footsteps, the two lines of colonists began exiting the shuttle at a trot, moving down the ramp and out onto the airfield tarmac.

Halfway down the line, Ri waited for his turn, feeling a tad unsteady on his feet. The combination of cryo-hibernation aftereffects with the return of gravity had rendered him lightheaded and weak, and the tingling excitement he was feeling added yet another interesting element to the mixture. He swayed slightly back and forth, hearing his breath echo lightly inside the plastic shell of his Exo.

He looked up, only to realize that Jason had already started moving, leaving him at the front of the waiting queue. Wincing at that little slip of attention, he followed suit before Charleston could notice, forcing himself into a jog down the aisle. His limbs were still stiff and aching from six years at -200 degrees Celsius, and running instead of floating and sitting suddenly felt very weird indeed.

As he followed Jason's broad form down the ramp, he couldn't help glancing back in amazement at the Valkyrie. Now he was outside the bay, he could truly appreciate how truly enormous the shuttle was. The vehicle's top edge loomed a full eight meters overhead, and the vast, black-tiled delta wings overshadowed at least half of the eighty-meter wide landing pad.

Feeling his feet hit tarmac, he turned his head back towards the line ahead of him and kept on jogging. For some reason, though, running wasn't nearly as easy as it should have been.

"Blast," he muttered, frowning. Even though the warm, humid Pandoran air was perfectly still, it felt like he was running headlong into a stiff wind, pushing back at him with every step. To make things worse, his shoes couldn't seem to get a proper grip on the ground. He missed his footing and stumbled, barely managing to prevent himself falling flat-out onto the asphalt.

Regaining his balance, he sighed, shaking his head. _I'd forgotten about that. _Pandora's air, composed partially of heavy xenon gas, was a full ten percent denser than the Terran variety. Combine that with a twenty percent lower gravity, resulting in loss of traction, and the circumstances for running were hardly ideal.

Having recovered from that little incident, Ri turned his attention to the great colony around him. It was evening: low in the sky ahead of him, a setting Alpha Centauri highlighted everything in shades of gold and amber, and the thick air was laden with warmth. Past the perimeter fences, a vast wall of jungle, now shaded black, spread out in every direction, the occasional flying spec visible above the canopy. The giant blue orb of mighty Polyphemus, looming overhead, completed the surreal effect.

Parallel to their own route, a vast, battered-looking, yellow dump truck ponderously rolled by on the right with a deep bass roar of engines. Each of its six muddy wheels were easily twice the height of the pair of armed escorts walking beside it.

Passing them in opposite direction, a pair of hulking AMP suits walked by, mechanical joints whirring. The robotic, humanoid exoskeletons stood at a full four meters and carried massive, cannon-like guns in their metallic, jointed hands. As they passed by, Ri caught a glimpse of the human operators inside their cabins.

On the other side, several armored helicopters, bristling with guns and missiles, touched down on a long landing strip. The rattle of their twin rotors cut through the base's background noise of machinery.

Like the rest of the machinery around the base, the Scorpions seemed rather outdated, especially compared with the incredible, sleek, state-of-the-art technology the RDA boasted back on Earth. However, this old-fashioned equipment was the company's only option here. To bring the enormous amounts of machinery straight from Earth was absolutely unfeasible – the costs of launching it would have been astronomical. As a result, almost everything in use on the base had been made using Pandoran raw materials. Only electronics and other rare materials were imported. This meant that Hell's Gate was only able to use more or less basic, sturdy and old-fashioned machinery. The fact had always amused Ri somewhat.

Although old-fashioned, the equipment was certainly functional. It had to be, here in this mysterious and dangerous world. On one of the perimeter weapons towers, an automated turret opened fire with a rattling roar, a stream of tracer rounds lighting up against the darkening sky. A shadowy shape dropped out of the sky, giving an unearthly, piercing shriek. Ri flinched slightly. He disliked death, even if it was for his own safety.

He realized that they had almost reached the entrance. Ahead of them stood the cluster of the base's squat, angular main buildings, their top-level windows almost giving them the look of air-control towers sunk halfway into the ground. Like the rest of the colony, the modules were all concrete and steel, forming a harsh contrast with the dark, mysterious natural world beyond the perimeter.

The group held still at the foremost module, moving in beneath a short, chain-link tunnel that led to a sturdy-looking pair of metal doors. Ri stepped in beside Jason, looking up at the mechanic.

"Running makes for an interesting feeling, doesn't it?" he murmured. Jason gave a half-amused, half-disturbed smile.

"Yeah. That was weird," he answered, shaking his head vigorously as if to clear it of something. "I'm going to have to work out a lot more to make up for the low-g," the large man continued, thoughtfully examining his considerable biceps. Ri rolled his eyes. _Of course._

"Hey. At least you can lift more now," he returned, smirking. Jason snorted, but was stopped from replying by Charleston's arrival at the end of the line.

"Okay, people!" The officer made her way through the crowded tunnel towards the doors. "When the airlock opens, move inside in an orderly manner. Masks off _only _when I tell you to. After that, you follow me to commissary one. All right?"

Without really waiting for an answer, Charleston reached out and tapped a red touchpad to one side of the entrance, turning it green. With a faint, oiled _whoosh_, the doors slid smoothly apart to admit entrance to a fairly large, square airlock. The colonists slowly filed inside, moving towards the front of the room.

Ri took a quick look around. Opposite the doors they had just come through was an identical pair, leading inside the module. The walls were lined with emergency procedure posters, maps of the facility that labeled this building as **CONMOD**, or command module, a couple of fire extinguishers and several quick-access rebreather units standing at the ready.

With a low, slow _hiss_, the airlock activated, drawing the toxic Pandoran atmosphere out and replacing it with a more human-friendly variety. The air turned into a hazy blur as the gases collided in the chamber. Then, it cleared, and the hissing stopped.

"Okay! Exos off!" Ri pulled off the perspex mask, stowing it next to the filter on his belt. In front of them, the airtight doors opened, admitting them into the facility. The group filed in behind the officer, following her into the hallway.

Next to Jason once again, Ri looked around him as they moved along at a fairly swift clip. The modules' halls, like the rest of Hell's Gate, were functional and tough: simple, sturdy, arched hallways of steel and concrete, lit by pale fluorescent lighting, with pipelines and wires in plain sight along the walls and ceiling. At some points, a glass wall offered a view into an adjacent training or computer room.

Like in the airlock, emergency instructions and supplies were placed at regular intervals throughout the halls, along with well-lit directional signs and maps. The concrete support pillars all had a broad, horizontal band of blue painted on them, with a bold **1**, indicating the floor level, stenciled at the top.

The entire place reminded him of the Central Sub-Atlantic Research Station (without the water, that is) or one of the other remote-area bases he'd been to. He smirked. _This is as remote as they come._

Charleston led them down a short ramp that led into a long, straight hallway. Ri, remembering the maps in the Colonists' User Manual/Orientation Guide, realized that this was one of the tunnels between modules, taking them to one of the habitation modules. Emerging from the hallway into HABMOD 1, they immediately took a left turn, arriving at a pair of stairwells that went up the module.

Charleston gave the directions. "Level six. When we get there, move in, sit down and wait for Mr. Gonzales.

* * *

Jason sat back on his bench inside the darkened commissary, looking around him as everybody settled down. The large mess hall, nicknamed Hell's Kitchen by the colonists, was filled with row upon row of benches, which had been turned towards the podium at one end of the room. The benches were filled with the two hundred fresh techs, drivers, soldiers and other arrivals, all of them looking expectantly up at the man on the podium.

Samuel Gonzales was a short, casual-looking Hispanic, with a carefully trimmed goatee and moustache and brightly dressed in a bright Hawaiian shirt and shorts. The colony administrator grinned as he walked up, surveying the crowd in front him. It was a cool, clever smile, with a hard, calculating edge to it.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." He paused, surveying his audience, then theatrically spread his arms. "Welcome to Pandora!" he exclaimed grandly. "Welcome to the new frontier. And welcome to the greatest operation of our age." Gonzales' voice was like the rest of him: quick, smooth and forceful. The man had a certain power to him, a certain charisma. Unexpectedly, Jason found himself getting caught up in the speech.

"The enterprise here has been growing beyond all expectations. Two years ago, we began hitting a huge lode of Unobtanium here at ESM One. We are still nowhere near peak yield. We are standing on the mother of all treasure troves. This entire moon, right here," – he stomped lightly to emphasize the point – "is one huge diamond in the rough. And _we_ get to polish it."

After a short moment, he continued. "A lot has been happening since you all went into stasis, folks." The administrator began giving them a summary of the goings-on in Hell's Gate, aided by the large screen behind him. He proudly showed them the figures and facts of the colony's expansion and enormous profits, interesting discoveries, and the ambitious plans for the coming few years. Jason had to admit, this was all pretty impressive.

Ending the summary, Gonzales paused, his expression darkening. "Like I said, though, this is the new frontier. We are living on the edge of the wilds here. And I can assure you, these wilds can and will kill. We deal on a daily basis with toxins, radiation and vicious wildlife here. Out there, it's one huge hell of oversized monsters." He tapped a key on the computer next to him. On the screen, several examples of Pandoran wildlife and other dangers appeared, slowly revolving to show each menacing detail. Jason recognized some of them from training. Others were totally unfamiliar.

"There are poisonous plants, lethal insects and oversized carnivores out there. The aboriginal humanoids, the Na'vi, don't exactly see eye to eye with us yet." As the little pun was answered by several chuckles, several of the great, blue beings appeared onscreen. "Relations with them are peaceful, but still unstable, and as with everything else here, caution is absolutely necessary. This world, all of it, may seem primitive, but it is unpredictable, tough and deadly. Keep that in mind every minute that you're here."

"In order to ensure everybody's safety, we have strict rules and regulations here, enforced by our Chief of Security, Colonel Mason, who will be discussing them with you in a moment. Everybody is expected to follow them to the letter. I don't think anybody has a problem with that, right?" Silence. Gonzales nodded.

"Good. And that brings us to you. You were all brought here because you are the best of the best. So, tell me," he said, slowly pacing back and forth, intently watching his audience. "Are you going to let some alien critter get the best of you?" There was a general murmur of "No". Gonzales grinned. "Or are we going to show this planet who's boss?" The colonists' reply was far more enthusiastic this time.

"Excellent!" the administrator went on, clearly pleased with his audience. "This colony here is the key to a new age. So who's ready to get out there and make some history?" There were quite a few cheers now, all around the commissary. "Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you all the best of luck on your mission. Thank you." Gonzales waved, then stepped down off the podium, accompanied by a fair amount of applause.

Jason grinned as well, caught up in the enthusiasm of the pep talk. He turned, looking for Ri's reaction. The scientist was sitting quite still, his face a nearly emotionless mask. His eyes were slightly narrowed, and the corners of his mouth turned downwards, giving him a faintly ominous look. Whatever Ri was feeling, it was _not_ excited enthusiasm.

Before Jason could ask anything, a deep, businesslike voice called out through the room. "Settle down, everyone!" A tall, muscular African American in a camouflage uniform stepped up, the lighting gleaming off his clean-shaven head. This was probably Colonel Mason. The man had a cold, hard, commanding presence, silencing the entire room in a few seconds.

"All right. I'm going to keep this simple. I'm Colonel Thomas Mason, Chief of Security Operations here. My word, and that of your other superiors, is law. Like Mr. Gonzales said, that's for everybody's survival." Mason was every inch a stone-cold, businesslike officer. Jason had no intention of disobeying.

Mason wasted no time. "Now, let's go over the facility rules here, just to make sure everybody's got them straight. Rule number one: Exos within reach at all times. Whenever you go outside or hear the alarm, get that thing on your face. You all know what the air will do to you." _Yup. CO2 and H2S. Death within minutes, not to mention pretty smelly._

"Rule number two: I don't want to see anyone drunk, drugged or otherwise intoxicated, at whatever time. Anybody caught in that state, or in a physical fight, goes straight to the detention center. No exceptions." Jason nodded, realizing once again that he was going to have to watch it. He was a good enough fellow, but he had a short fuse. More than once, he had gotten into trouble for attacking somebody who had angered him.

Mason went on, laying down the rest of the Pandoran law. The rules were all simple and strict. No unauthorized or unescorted forays OTW, or outside the wire. Stay inside the modules unless your job requires otherwise. No taking anything from outside into the base without clearance, and so on and so forth. Breaking one of the rules meant stiff penalties. The colonel also ran through the base's various drills and situation protocols.

After Mason adjourned the briefing, Officer Charleston walked back up to the front of the commissary. "Okay, everybody, last things for today!" Jason paused to listen as he got up from his seat, shouldering his bag. "You will now go and meet your respective superiors. SecOps, move down to level two and report to Lieutenant Colonel Quaritch. Science, head for SCIMOD. Executive staff, Mr. Gonzales is expecting you in CONMOD, level five. The rest of you, stay here. After the meeting, head for your assigned quarters."

Hell's Kitchen was suddenly filled with activity and chatter as the colonists got up, moving towards the stairs and elevators.

"This way, Jason." Ri appeared next to him, beckoning for him to follow. Jason frowned, remembering the scientist's expression a moment ago.

"Hey, uh, Ri?" he asked as they headed down the stairwell, once again at Ri's usual hurried speed.

"Yes?"

"During the speech back there. Was there something wrong, or…?" He let the question hang there. Ri lightly nodded, taking a moment to form an answer.

"I dislike Gonzales' kind," the scientist finally answered as they descended the last few steps, entering the hallway again. Jason blinked at the oddness of the answer.

"And, by 'Gonzales' kind', you mean…?"

"People who destroy living worlds for personal gain. People who put their wallets before their morals." Ri looked straight ahead as he spoke, his voice with an unexpected, harsh edge to it. "This little operation hardly has the preservation of this environment as its primary concern."

Jason felt a sudden uneasiness at the words. Ri was criticizing the company, speaking as if he practically hated it. And Jason had the nagging suspicion he was right about the situation, too. Much as he hated to admit it, he was working for a company that might well destroy the things that made him join in the first place.

The two of them were, thankfully enough, distracted by a familiar voice behind them. "Hey, Dr. Dracis! Mr. DeMarcco!" They turned to see Anna Chang, smiling enthusiastically as she caught up to them. Instead of her lab coat, the AVTR tech was now wearing a vest and jeans.

"Evening, Doctor Chang." Ri replied, smiling back. "Hope you've had a nice trip," he added, a hint of irony in his tone. Chang's smile turned wry.

"Yeah, that wasn't exactly first class, was it? Thanks anyways, though," the doctor answered. "By the way, that's Anna to you two. We're going to be working a lot with each other, and I don't think I could stand six years of titles."

"Okay. I like that idea," Jason said, now grinning as well. He didn't like formalities, either.

"That's settled, then." Chang, or rather, Anna, looked pleased.

* * *

With a soft hiss, the glass doors slid open, admitting the three of them to the cool, dark interior of the BioLab. The SCIMOD laboratory was a fairly large complex, divided into sections by glass cubicle walls and the long rows of tables and large, polished equipment. As he walked by, Ri spotted microscopes, sample refrigerators, multi-scanners and a host of other high-end electronics. Standing at their posts, white-coated scientists conducted their research in quiet concentration, intently observing the computer screens.

"Ah, now this is more like it!" Ri remarked, looking around the room. Dark, quiet, and full of state-of-the-art equipment. This was going to be good. He could hardly wait to get to work. Beside him, Anna laughed, looking just as happy as he was with the room.

"Oh, yeah! Science!" she said, giving him a high five. In front of them, Jason turned, giving the two of them a _look._

"What?" Ri defensively asked, holding out his hands. "We're scientists. It's what we do!" The mechanic rolled his eyes, turning away.

Just then, a man and a woman, both wearing lab coats, approached them from the back of the lab. The one on the right, a round-faced, bespectacled Asian Indian with a short beard, held out his hand, grinning a welcome.

"Good evening! You must be our new pilots!" Jason nodded.

"Yup. This is Ri Dracis, and I'm Jason DeMarcco," he said, gesturing at the two of them

"And I'm Anna Chang, AVTR lab support," Anna finished for him.

"Welcome to Pandora, then! Nice to meet you!" the man said with a quiet enthusiasm, shaking each of their hands. "I'm Max Patel, lab support, and this is Grace Augustine, the head of the AVTR Program," he continued, gesturing at his companion, a strict-faced woman with a short mane of auburn curls. He didn't really have to. Ri had recognized her already.

Dr. Augustine had become more or less a scientific legend. The most senior operative in the Program, she was considered more or less _the _authority on anything that lived on Pandora's surface.

"_Oel ngati kameie, ma toktor_," he said, touching three fingers to his brow and then turning his hand palm-up. _I See you, doctor._ Beside him, Jason mimicked the Na'vi gesture. Dr. Augustine's mouth twitched into a half-smile.

"Huh. Looks like you two did your homework," she remarked, a hand on her hip. A hint of approval showed through her expression. "Good job."

Dr. Patel held up his finger for attention. "I'm sure you two will want to see your avatars," he said, looking at Jason and Ri. "This way," the scientist instructed, turning towards the back end of the lab and gesturing.

* * *

"Holy-," Jason managed to bring out as they rounded a long desk, lined with computers and equipment.

"Woah," Ri agreed, coming in beside him,

In front of them, standing on a smooth, open space of lab floor, were the avatar tanks, their soft blue glow highlighting their surroundings. And inside each tank were their full-grown avatars, gently twitching and shifting.

"They came in on the shuttle before you guys, so we only just got them out of their crates," Patel said, walking up to the left-hand tank and scanning the display screens. "And yeah, I know what you mean. This stuff is downright amazing," he continued, admiration showing in his voice. He lightly tapped the curved edge of the tank. "Here's yours, Jason."

"Awesome," murmured Jason, walking up to the tank. The sound of Ri's conversation with Dr. Patel faded into the distance as he stared at the great creature, fascinated.

The avatar floated face-up in the illuminated liquid, arms curled lightly in front of its chest in a sort of fetal position. During the years of space travel, it had grown into full adulthood, with a powerful, lean form and long, almost graceful limbs. Even though it was thin by human standards, its smooth, powerful-looking muscles made it anything but skinny. Jason ran his eyes up and down the hybrid's length, amazed at how gigantic it had become. From head to toes, he had to guess eleven feet, at least.

The hybrid's blue color was accentuated by the horizontal, slightly darker stripes that lined the length of its body. Other than the long hair on its head and the small tuft on the end of the sweeping tail, both drifting like seaweed in the liquid, its skin was completely smooth.

And then the face. Alien and elegant, with a flat, catlike nose; pointed, high-set ears and huge, wide-set eyes, peacefully closed. And yet, it was definitely his face there.

He pressed his hand against the cool glass of the tank, looking at his alien self. Even as he watched, the avatar's limbs twitched, shifting it again inside the womb. It was almost as if it could wake up at any minute, that those giant eyes would snap open and look right at him. It was eerie, exciting and amazing, all at once.

"That's biotech for you," Ri remarked, walking up next to him. He took a good look at the avatar. "Blast, and I thought you were big as a human!" he softly exclaimed, raising his eyebrows. Jason grinned.

"I know. Any bigger and he'd have busted the tank," he replied. "Guess it's all in the genes, huh?"

"Uh-huh." Ri looked back up, turning to leave. "Hey, we'd better go back and see Dr. Augustine. They're going to decant them now."

"All right. When do we link up, by the way?"

"0800 sharp, tomorrow."

"Oh, _shweet_!"

* * *

**Author's Note**: _There! I'm sorry for the long wait, but I had to "recharge" a bit. This chapter's size should make up for that, though. Up next: Waking up as an avatar!_


End file.
